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March 28, 2019

Poland is quickly embracing feed safety: Promising developments in Eastern Europe

by GMP+, Poland

Over the past decade, compound feed production in Poland has more than doubled to over 11 million tonnes per year, a development boosted by increased demand for poultry feed and cattle feed. As Poland has taken its place as the largest poultry producing country in the European Union, feed safety has become top of mind. 

 
Here we gain some insight into a conversation with Magdalena Zgiep-Porzucek (PZZ Wałcz), Tomasz Wertelecki (ETOS), and Johan den Hartog (GMP+ International) about Poland’s progress.

Johan den Hartog, Managing Director at GMP+ International, recently came home encouraged after making a trip to Poland. GMP+ International, owner of the world’s largest feed safety assurance scheme, had organised multiple seminars in this Eastern European country over the course of several years. But this time was different.

“On this trip, it became clear to me that Poland has really turned the corner: feed safety is becoming top of mind”, Den Hartog wrote afterwards, on his blog at GMP+ International’s website.

Embracing feed safety
“It’s not just the numbers”, Den Hartog emphasises in his office at GMP+ International’s headquarters in Rijswijk, the Netherlands. “I knew the numbers of Poland’s feed sector growth. I knew the number of GMP+ Feed Safety Assurance (FSA) certificates had been skyrocketing for the last few years. What I was really impressed by in Poland, was the dedication of the people we met.

“Ten years ago, we could barely find an audience in Poland for our seminars. Now, people drive for hours to meet us and hear about our scheme. I saw a true embrace of feed safety assurance and that was extremely encouraging.”

As of 2019, over 2,700 companies in Poland are GMP+ FSA certified, a tenfold increase compared to 2009. Due to this surge, almost 80 percent of the Polish compound feed industry is now certified.

Taking the lead
What changed in those ten years? For starters, more and more clients in Western Europe started asking Polish transport companies to have GMP+ FSA certification. In more recent years, the domestic agri-market (poultry and dairy specifically) has also increasingly been requesting their feed suppliers to become GMP+ FSA certified.

“No longer do foreign companies have to make demands, Polish companies themselves are taking the lead”, says Den Hartog.

PZZ Wałcz, which has about 230 employees, is one of them. A feed producing company from Piła, in the northwestern region of Poland, PZZ Wałcz has been GMP+ FSA certified since 2016.

“Many companies in Poland are interested in GMP+ certification, due to the increased awareness”, says Magdalena Zgiep-Porzucek of PZZ Wałcz. “What also plays an important role are the requirements, in relation to producers and suppliers of feed materials and feed additives”, she adds.


Read more HERE.
 

The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.


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